Soundproofing a room in basement

[spiral scratch]

Maybe you should google sound proofing and triple leaf constructions.

Yeh, I've spent a bunch of time reading up on various approaches. I don't think I'm going the triple leaf route, most likely some channel on the existing studs/joists and drywall over top. I'm not expecting to create a perfect seal, but hoping to knock the noise down somewhat.

I have had a look on AVSforum as well and they do have a ton of info and lots of ideas there.

I still have to open the bulkhead over the doorway and find out what sort of mechanical is in there and my available clearance for the ceiling.

 

[Duke]

I was thinking about soundproofing a room in my basement...

If anyone has any experience, suggestions or advice in this regard that would be appreciated. Thanks.

I apologize for being late to the party.

I highly recommend "Premium Home Theater: Design and Construction" by Earl Geddes. It is out of print (and listed for $100 on Amazon), BUT the entire book is available online for free:

http://www.gedlee.com/downloads/HT/Home_theater.pdf

 

[MatrixS2000]

I apologize for being late to the party.

I highly recommend "Premium Home Theater: Design and Construction" by Earl Geddes. It is out of print (and listed for $100 on Amazon), BUT the entire book is available online for free:

http://www.gedlee.com/downloads/HT/Home_theater.pdf

Thanks for this, I have been silently following this thread as I am planning both a HT and a listening room.

 

[bert stoltenborg]

Co

Yeh, I've spent a bunch of time reading up on various approaches. I don't think I'm going the triple leaf route, most likely some channel on the existing studs/joists and drywall over top. I'm not expecting to create a perfect seal, but hoping to knock the noise down somewhat.

I have had a look on AVSforum as well and they do have a ton of info and lots of ideas there.

I still have to open the bulkhead over the doorway and find out what sort of mechanical is in there and my available clearance for the ceiling.

Of course you're not going the triple leaf route because it is tricky. You can get a lot of information about your situation if you find out the construction details and eventually do a crude measurement on how well the current construction reduces sound. From that point you can start calculating how much improvement a certain additional sound proofing construction will realize. That is how the scientific guys work .

 

[klettermann]

You may get some good info, or at least inspiration, from THIS. I certainly did, though I didn't use their rubber damping stuff. Instead I just went with cheap RISC clips and hat channel. Otherwise basically the same as Harley. It works great. If you have the flexibility do your best to get room dimensional ratios right. Cheers,

 

[spiral scratch]

If you have the flexibility do your best to get room dimensional ratios right.

By this do you mean the length, width and height of the room? I did not realize there were optimal room dimensions other than the bigger the better.

I would put a loud sound source in the room and use a sound meter (or a phone app) to see what the paths are and what adjacent living areas are really impacted.

Do they transmit sound now between? Are they metal ducts or flexible?

I'm wondering if a phone app is OK. My understanding is without calibration it's not going to give me much info, but maybe it's good enough for my basic needs?

I've already taken out most of the ceiling, so I can't do a proper before/after measurement.

There's several ducts within the ceiling and walls. They are all solid metal. One in the ceiling is HVAC into the room, the other duct in the ceiling is a dryer vent that runs across the room. There's a duct bulkhead that drops below the joists about 6 inches and runs about 8 feet into the back wall. There's also two ducts in the walls, one intake and one outtake. The previous home owner did some duct rerouting, I'll need to figure out what will work best. I'm not planning a split ducting, so I'll just try to figure out if I can isolate the existing duct better to isolate from the rest of the house. I saw a thread on AVS where someone used flexible duct and ran it in a 'S' to help isolate from the rest of the house and reported favorable results.

I did sign up with AVS Forum and I'll see if I can get some further assistance with the members there.

 

[DonH56]

By this do you mean the length, width and height of the room? I did not realize there were optimal room dimensions other than the bigger the better.

You can reduce the impact of room modes by having H, L, W be relatively prime to each other, using prime ratios, Golden Ratio, or similar methods to make your room. My media room was prime, but then we added a bedroom which required a hallway which reduce d the volume by about a third, and I ended up with fairly poor dimensions. If the dimensions are multiples, or nearly so, then you will increase the effect of room modes, both peaks and nulls, making bass response more variable and harder to correct.

Overview on ASR:

Room Modes

Room interactions are often discussed as one of the primary reasons similar (or even dissimilar) systems sound different. If you read the “Reflections and DACs” thread you saw how reflections and standing waves can interact along a transmission line. As it happens, sound waves in a room also...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Good overview here (room dimensions are down a ways after the background material): https://amcoustics.com/articles/roommodes

 

[klettermann]

By this do you mean the length, width and height of the room? I did not realize there were optimal room dimensions other than the bigger the better.

Yes! However, it's about optimal proportions, not simply dimensions. Hence, bigger is not necessarily better. HERE is an excellent tool to play with. It allows you to see the effect of dimensions on room modes, resonances, etc. Cheers,

 

[spiral scratch]

Thanks for the links. I remember reading up on room nodes ages ago (probably on this site), I'll have to see if I can find the bookmarks. I was having all kinds of problems with my subs, in the end I just stopped using them. I didn't have any way to align them properly, I just tried moving them around until I thought they were OK, but it never really sounded cohesive. I'll use REW next time I start setting my gear up (and check out my golden ratios).

 

[spiral scratch]

Just looking around on the web I came across this paper which seems to cut to the chase, re.- room ratios:

https://odeon.dk/pdf/A29-JASA-EL-021601_1_Rindel.pdf

I took some comfort from the paper's conclusion that the room's height to width is not so critical as the length to width. My room's height and width are fairly fixed, but I was planning on some floor to ceiling shelving that I can place at the appropriate distance to find a good width:length ratio.